n the handling which
everything in the house had undergone. Regarding with great
thankfulness the result of my own foresight, I made haste to leave
the room. I then proceeded to take my first steps in the ticklish
experiment by which I hoped to determine whether Uncle David had had
any share in the fatal business which had rendered the two rooms I
had just visited so memorable.

First, satisfying myself by a peep through the front drawing-room
window that he was positively at watch behind the vines, I went
directly to the kitchen, procured a chair and carried it into the
library, where I put it to a use that, to an onlooker's eye, would
have appeared very peculiar. Planting it squarely on the
hearthstone,--not without some secret perturbation as to what the
results might be to myself,--I mounted it and took down the engraving
which I have already described as hanging over this mantelpiece.

Setting it on end against one of the jambs of the fireplace, I
mounted the chair once more and carefully sifted over the high shelf
the contents of a little package which I had brought with me for this
purpose.

Then, leaving the chair where it was, I betook myself out of the front
door, ostentatiously stopping to lock it and to put the key in my
pocket.

Crossing immediately to Mr. Moore's side of the street, I encountered
him as I had expected to do, at his own gateway.

"Well, what now?" he inquired, with the same exaggerated courtesy I
had noticed in him on a previous occasion. "You have the air of a
man bringing news. Has anything fresh happened in the old house?"

I assumed a frankness which seemed to impose on him.

"Do you know," I sententiously informed him, "I have a wonderful
interest in that old hearthstone; or rather in the seemingly innocent
engraving hanging over it, of Benjamin Franklin at the Court of
France. I tell you frankly that I had no idea of what would be found
behind the picture."

I saw, by his quick look, that I had stirred up a hornets' nest.
This was just what I had calculated to do.

"Behind it!" he repeated. "There is nothing behind it."

I laughed, shrugged my shoulders, and backed slowly toward the door.

"Of course, you should know," I retorted, with some condescension.
Then, as if struck by a sudden remembrance: "Oh, by the way, have
you been told that there is a window on that lower floor which does
not stay fastened? I speak of it that you may have it repaired as
soon as th